Although summer may be drawing to a close, don’t despair – the last weekend of August sees the European Le Mans Series return to action as we head towards the business end of the season. Temperatures are sure to be high at the 3.6 mile Circuit Paul Ricard, with all three championships on the line and a change in layout to adopt the Mistral Chicane providing an extra overtaking opportunity before the flat-out Signes Curve. All four hours of action in the south of France are showing LIVE on Motorsport.tv, so what are you waiting for?
In the new era for LMP2 characterised by greatly-increased top speeds, just four points separate G-Drive Racing (ORECA) and United Autosports (Ligier) at the top of the standings, the latter coming off the back of a second win of the season last time out at the Red Bull Ring. With Ryo Hirakawa again absent, Nicolas Minassian returns to the G-Drive line-up and will be eager to avenge the team’s narrow defeat in Austria. The surprise package of the season has been the Danish High Class Racing team, currently sat third overall. As one of four Dallara entrants in the field, Anders Fjordbach and Denis Andersen will be hoping to exploit their straight-line speed advantage, while it’s a similar story in the LMP3 ranks, where Duqueine Engineering will hope the Norma’s ultra-efficient aerodynamics will validate its decision to switch over from Ligier. It’s still Ligier that lead the title race however, with the #2 United Autosports squad of Sean Rayhall and Jon Falb currently tied on points with the all-French Ultimate entry. There’s action aplenty to be had in the GTE class too, where British teams JMW Motorsport and TF Sport will battle it out in a classic Ferrari versus Aston Martin grudge match.
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Another series returning from its summer slumber is the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, with coverage of round six from the Hungaroring. The battle of the big-rigs has so far gone the way of Adam Lacko, whose six wins from seven races across the Misano and Nurburgring meetings have put the Czech in a commanding position atop the standings. However, Lacko was unable to challenge for the top spot at the Slovakiaring, which will encourage the pursuing pack headed by double champion Norbert Kiss. The Hungarian will be eager to add to his two wins from Slovakia on home turf, while quadruple champion Jochen Hahn and truck racing’s first lady Steffi Halm will also expect to be in the hunt. With the tight and technical Budapest circuit’s reputation for close racing – sometimes too close for comfort – make sure to tune in for LIVE coverage race one and two on Saturday, followed by Delayed-as-Live coverage of Sunday’s races.
Over in Australia, the ninth round of the 2017 Supercars Championship comes from Sydney Motorsport Park, the final sprint races before the season of endurance kicks off at Sandown. Having kick-started his campaign with a double win at Barbagallo Raceway, DJR Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin (Ford) led the charge heading to New South Wales, but after an off-colour weekend in Queensland, his main championship rival Jamie Whincup (Holden) had an equally important accolade on his mind. Tied on 105 wins with Triple Eight team-mate Craig Lowndes, the six-time champion would become the most successful driver in series history if he could take his second victory of the season. This is not one to miss!
Sharing the bill with the Trucks in Hungary is the Blancpain GT Sports Club, for round five of the SRO’s championship for Bronze and Iron graded-drivers. A pair of second place finishes at Spa have given AKKA ASP Mercedes driver Anthony Pons a 46 point lead in the standings. The Frenchman could yet wrap up the title with one round to spare if Karim Ojjeh and Daniele Perfetti aren’t on the boil, but Perfetti’s victory from the back of the grid at Misano showed he won’t give up without a fight. Follow LIVE coverage of qualifying race, and Delayed-as-Live coverage of the main event on Sunday afternoon.
Further GT action comes courtesy of highlights from the Blancpain GT Asia Series trip to Mount Fuji. After taking a second feature race victory at Suzuka with Maxi Goetz, Hunter Abbott leads the standings in the GruppeM Mercedes, with Audi Hong Kong’s duo of Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong giving chase. The GT4 class has been dominated by Porsche thus far, but the addition of Richard Wee and Mok Weng Sun’s McLaren 570S is sure to bring competition to the Stuttgart marque’s plethora of entries. See all the action from Fuji Speedway in our highlights of the weekend’s action.
To cap of your weekend of motorsport, we have a full review of the FIA World Rally Championship’s trip to Germany, as Sebastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville went in to the weekend tied on points. Finally, there’s more FIM Sidecarcross action from the Baltic, with highlights of the madcap off-road championship’s trip to Estonia.
Friday 25th August
21:00 – FIA WRC, Rd 10, Best of Rally Germany
Saturday 26th August
12:55 – LIVE FIA European Truck Racing Championship, Rd 5, Hungaroring
(Race 1)
16:05 – LIVE FIA European Truck Racing Championship, Rd 5, Hungaroring
(Race 2)
18:25 – FIM Sidecarcross World Championship, Rd 11, Estonia
21:00 – Australian Supercars, Rd 9, Sydney Motorsport Park
Sunday 27th August
08:35 – LIVE Blancpain GT Sports Club, Rd 5, Hungaroring (Race 1)
09:25 – Blancpain GT Asia, Rd 4, Mount Fuji
10:45 – LIVE European Le Mans Series, Rd 4, Le Castellet
17:00 – Delayed-as-live Blancpain GT Sports Club, Rd 5, Hungaroring (Race 2)
18:00 – Delayed-as-live FIA European Truck Racing Championship, Rd 5, Hungaroring (Race 3)
18:50 - Delayed-as-live FIA European Truck Racing Championship, Rd 5, Hungaroring (Race 4)
